I went to school and so did mom. When she finished her nursing degree and started working, we made a big jump from middle class to upper-middle/lower-upper. Two cars then three when my brother started college. Able to take long weekend trips to go skiing or sight seeing. It definitely changed education and career expectations, i.e., go to college and white collar job.

JLC

My parents came from Dublin. In my mom's case you can begin to think Angle's Ashes. Mom also trained in the late 50s and early 60s to be a nurse. She got room and board from the nuns and literally no money to be a nurse or to train. She along with a few forward thinking trainees formed a union for a few pennies of pay.

Dad went to medical school at age 16, Trinity Dublin. He did two internships because he took mom to America on their honeymoon. His honeymoon quickly became doing his second internship. When they married in 1962 they each had saved $300 to their names. Dad worked for $4000 per year in his second year here during his first year of a residency. I was here and my sister was on her way.

In 1966 my dad volunteered for the Navy joining as Lieutenant Commander making $10k per year sometime around 1968 when my second sister was born at the Naval base in Philadelphia.

We had one car, a Ford Falcon for the first eight years of their marriage. The Falcon lasted 12 years till the floor rusted out. Mom would later retrain as a real estate agent when I turned 15. Dad worked as a hospital doctor for around half the pay he could have earned if he had hung his own shingle. He found it more interesting. He trained people with a about a third of the time he worked in the hospital setting. And clearly he often trained people that were not as good in medicine as he was. They often hung their own shingles and made far more money.

Along came the late 1980s, 1990s and doctors en mass left the hospital setting and formed corporate entities. Dad joined the ranks of very highly paid doctors. He always lived well below his means. My mom purposely lived far below their means. And with the new wealth they saved for retirement.

My parents spent money in only one way that was beyond most Americans idea of being frugal. They brought us to Ireland on average every three to four years. I went to Ireland at ages 2, 6, 10, 13, 15, 18, 20. I have under my own steam been to Ireland a few other times as well for marriages in the family.